Amidst the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, two bureaucrats from Assam are leading the team which is producing almost 2 to 3 lakh PPE kits per day for India.
Among these officers, Ravi Capoor who is the Secretary, Ministry of Textiles and Padmapani Bora, deputy secretary, Ministry of Textiles.
Smriti Irani, Minister of Textiles, in a tweet said, “Under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, India’s PPE manufacturing capacity hit 3 lakh/day today & will increase in the coming days. My heartiest gratitude & congratulations to @TexMinIndia officials for their relentless efforts in making India a self-reliant PPE mfg Nation.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier observed that in order to fulfil the dream of making the 21st century India’s, the way forward is through ensuring that the country becomes self-reliant. Talking about turning a crisis into an opportunity, he gave the example of PPE kits N-95 masks, whose production in India has gone up from almost being negligible to 2 lakh each, on a daily basis.
The officers are among the 16 officers who are extensively involved in the PPE story of the country.
Ravi Capoor was the Additional Chief Secretary, Assam, from 2016 to 2019. He was in charge of Mines & Minerals, Forest & Environment, Act East Policy Affairs and Public Enterprises Department. In addition, he also had the portfolios of Industry and Commerce.
He was also Project Director of World Bank Funded Project (1999-2002) on Rural Infrastructure in Assam.
While Kumar Padmapani Bora, Indian Revenue Service officer, was recently appointed as Deputy Secretary in the Union Ministry of Textiles for a period of four years. He was serving as the Joint Commissioner of Income Tax, Mumbai. Prior to this, Bora had worked on various important posts in the Income Tax Department, Guwahati.
